Dear Friend of Grace:   

We believe the children are our future, teach them well and let them lead the way…” (from Greatest Love of All, song by Whitney Houston, songwriters Creed & Masser)

That lyric resonates with us at Grace and we hope it is meaningful to you too. We are inviting you to support learning resources, access to books, and literacy programming during a time when the children in our underserved community need them desperately. When children read, we all succeed. Literacy is the foundation on which so many important skills are built!

During the past two years, we have witnessed major adverse impacts from the disruption of schooling on the children of our Northeast KCMO community. The tutoring and academic enrichment that is offered at Grace is more critically needed than ever before! 

Despite and, in fact, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, we at Grace United Community Ministries have doubled down our efforts to provide hybrid virtual and in-person tutoring, transportation, encouragement, clothing, and healthy meals for our students in a socially-distanced and safe environment. We are seeing the fruits of these efforts as the school year draws to a close. 

Grace United Community Ministries never stops with just the school year though. We need to raise $50,000 by June 30, 2022 to support our summer programming! We have plans to enrich, encourage and broaden the experiences of 100 children this summer– but we need your help! 

Our summer programming will include educational support to help students maintain over the summer what has been learned during the school year. Students will also participate in life enriching activities and new experiences to help them grow into healthy, community-minded adults 

We are so grateful to generous donors who have pledged up to $15,000 as a dollar for dollar match to donations made by June 15! 

Our students’ families tell us how important our summer programming is to them, giving their children constructive activities as a healthy alternative to just sitting at home or getting drawn down troublesome paths during the summer vacation. We hope you will help us fulfill their expectations.

We are having a Garden Party, Saturday June 11 to spend time with Grace Friends and enjoy a unique experience! We hope to see you there!

Lastly, on a personal note…I want you to feel free to reach out to me anytime to learn more about the impact we are having on NE Kansas City and how you can be a part of it!

Kindest Regards,

Jesse Barnes

Jesse Barnes, Ed.D

Executive Director